A Hole To Nowhere
by grendels
Summary: In which New York City gets unnaturally hot, Isabelle uses every trick in the book and Alec decides that he's digging a hole to China. /AlecxIsabelle, semi-fluffy/


'Alec, what are you doing?"

It was a simple enough question with a simple enough answer but, somehow, Alec wasn't sure what to tell his sister.

"I'm digging a hole."

Isabelle leaned against the side of the building and took a sip from the glass she held in one hand. He watched as the condensation from the liquid inside trickled down the outside of the glass, over Isabelle's fingers and dripped from the base. A glass of water had never looked so tempting. It was the dead of summer and the heat of New York City, the heat he had grown up with all his life, was starting to get to him. It was 101 degrees Fahrenheit today, the humidity and the smell of sweat and sun pressing down on everyone who had ventured outside. A beat of sweat ran down his temple and he wiped it away, annoyed.

She cocked her head, staring at him. "I can see that, you idiot. I mean _why_ are you digging a hole? It's broiling out here. And where the hell is it going to?"

He hadn't thought that part out yet. Where was the hole leading to? "Uh…" he bit his lip, straightening up and leaning on his shovel. 'China?" he offered weakly, grinning. Isabelle just sighed and rolled her eyes.

"You are so weird, Alec." She _tsk_ed with her tongue. "Why are you digging a hole?"

"Because I hated sitting around inside with Jace and it's taking his leg forever to heal, even with the rune Mom gave him and all he does is whine and bitch about how he could have taken that demon down this morning if he hadn't tripped on that root at the park. And no matter how many times I say I believe him, _he will not shut up_. It was driving me crazy and you know how fidgety I get when I'm just sitting around and Mom said I had to go out and do something." He explained, grabbing the shovel and jamming it back into the dirt, pulling up a good amount of soil and tossing it over to the ever-growing pile next to the hole.

"So you're digging a hole?" She still seemed incredulous, her mouth quirked off to the side and one eyebrow raised. He nodded and bit the inside of his cheek.

"We've established that."

"Oh, alright then." She grinned and, to Alec's unsettlement, wiggled her way down the wall until she was sitting on the ground, her legs splayed out in front of her. Noticing his expression, she giggled and sat up. 'Don't mind me, dearest Alec. I'm just going to watch you work." He pulled a face at her and she pulled one back before taking another sip of her drink. She waved her hand in the air. "Please, pay no attention to the girl against the wall. Carry on."

Trying very hard not to become distracted by her, he continued to dig, not caring that this was a hole to nowhere. It was something to take his mind of her sitting there, her eyes following his every move. The smile playing on her face, the rise and fall of her chest, the curve of her waist beneath her tank top. He was trying very hard not to notice those things (and, admittedly, quite a few others) but it was a tricky thing to do when she was purposefully trying to get his attention without actually getting his attention. If that made any sense. She did that quite often, especially in places where if he was caught staring at her too long or something there would be very dire consequences. He hates that part about her- her obsession with playing with fire. He doesn't understand why she can't just let their relationship be. It's a nice one, it works out, they haven't gotten caught yet and still she's constantly pushing the limits. At first it was just little things- hiking her skirt up a bit farther than necessary and purposely wearing smallest clothes she had when she sat next to him. But now it's on to stuff that, if it went wrong, could backfire and hurt both of them. Stuff like how she runs her hand up his thigh at dinner time and kissing him for a millisecond when Jace's back is turned. He isn't sure she fully understands how hard it is to concentrate on your dinner and keep a straight face when your sister is feeling you up in all the wrong places underneath the table.

And he's right. She doesn't get it. Every time he tries to tell her that she has to be more careful, she just rolls her eyes and tells him to stop being such a stuck up ass and that everything will work itself out. Oh, how he wishes he could believe her. But he knows that's not true. Things don't just work themselves, you have to meticulously plan them out and make sure all the parts are in order and think about it before doing it because not doing that leads to stupid things, like getting caught, and Alec hates nothing more than when people do stupid things.

It's a lot to think about and he doesn't always like to but he most certainly cannot listen to Isabelle because, according to her philosophy, they could theoretically have sex on their mother's desk and no one would be the wiser because things will "work themselves out." So, technically, he's thinking for two in this.

He's jolted out of his thoughts by someone screaming his name and it takes him more than a few seconds to realize that that person is Isabelle. "ALEC!" she proceeded to use some very colorful language while he tried to figure out what he did wrong and then- it hits him. He just threw a shovelful of dirt right at her. Oh boy.

His first thought is to start running because he knows for a fact that her tank top is new and from the store in the mall that she really likes, the one that makes him gag every time she drags him in there because of how over-perfumed it is. But, surprisingly enough, she doesn't start after him. She simply sits for a second, breathing in deeply through her nose, closing her eyes tight before opening them, pasting a huge smile on her face and doing something even worse than tackling him. She reaches down and yanks the dirt-speckled tank top off, letting it drop on the ground next to her.

She's wearing a bathing suit top underneath, which makes it better and a little less awkward, but not by much. His heart is hammering away in his chest and he stares at the ground so intently that he's sure that the dried grass is going to catch on fire or something because he's that _hell bent_ on not looking at her. Because they're right outside the Institute, in the backyard and if someone, Jace or their mother or even Max, were to come out and see her posing like that against the wall and him staring at her with his jaw on the ground, stuttering like an idiot, uh, yeah, they might suspect that something was up.

Grabbing the shovel again, he sets back to work, this time a bit more fervently because it's something to occupy his mind. It doesn't last for long, though (nothing ever does, especially when it's something to do with his sister) because without a sound, she manages to get right up next to him and she's smirking and staring and her hand is on his back, her fingers tracing over the slim muscle where it stood out against his skin because, by the Angel, he's still holding that goddamn shovel, clutching it so tightly that the tendons in his wrist stand out.

It doesn't matter anyway, because she leans down to kiss him and he's kissing her back and he feels her smile against his lips because she's won (again). The shovel drops to the ground with a clang as he follows her inside the house.

Guess that hole didn't really lead to nowhere after all.

* * *

**A/N: This fic is dedicated to the ever wonderful Nikki, who gave me the prompt of (I'm paraphrasing here) "So, Alec decides to dig a hole to China and then he gets dirt on Isabelle's clothes, so she takes them off because, y'know, they're dirty, which leads to other things. So…yeah." I love writing this because there's no way I could make that plotline angsty, which is good because I need to take a break from that. –insert review whore here- You all know the drill. ;)**


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